Image: Remix by Nonviolence News from photo by Mike Ramirez Mx on Pixabay
Editor’s Note From Rivera Sun
May Day is the International Labor Day and people across the world took action. In addition to labor justice and immigrant rights, protesters also opposed far right policies (Germany), authoritarian crackdowns (Turkey), power outages (Spain), and fascism and war (Switzerland). People in France, Spain, the Philippines, and Taiwan also opposed the ‘Trumpization‘ of global politics. For once, the United States also made international news on May Day by mobilizing hundreds of thousands of people to honor the Labor Day that commemorates our historic Haymarket Riot. With big marches in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Phoenix, and around 1300 other actions happening nationwide in honor of May Day, people showed up for immigrant rights, labor justice, economic justice, and to oppose the Trump administration’s policies. In Los Angeles, 55,000 county workers are also participating in a 2-day strike.
This week, Trump ran into some legal reality checks in his attempt to round-up immigrants. Judges are reining in ICE’s use of the Alien Enemies Act and other abusive practices. Pro-Palestinian Columbia University student Mohsen Madawi has been released from detention, as has Judge Hannah Dugan after hundreds of people rallied against her arrest. ICE is backing down and reversing the termination of legal status for international students across the United States, reinstating thousands of student visas. The good news is welcome – and more is needed. A reporter flew an aerial drone over a Texas detention center to catch an image of Venezuelan detainees spelling out SOS with their bodies. A shrine was set up where Rumeysa Ozturk was snatched off the streets by ICE. Resistance to deportations continues to target not only ICE agents, but also services they require – like airplanes and prisons. Protesters are opposing Avelo Airlines with coast-to-coast demonstrations to pressure the company to stop their deportation flights to El Salvador. Protests also cropped up outside a detention center in Portland, Oregon, and against a proposed detention center in Quincy, Florida.
At 100 days into his second term, the blowback to Trump’s unpopular policies is showing. Polls revealed that the majority of the country now opposes all of his major policies – and protests are unrelenting. The Courage Not Compliance march in DC unfurled a giant constitution and blocked rush hour traffic, leading to arrests. Rev. Barber and other clergy were arrested while praying in the rotunda of the US Capitol Building. People are reverse-engineering a MAGA-friendly website to use its Trump-supporting business directory to find places to boycott. Coca-Cola and Levi Strauss rejected anti-DEI proposals. Major European institutions have joined in the effort to archive and back up the United States’ scientific data on climate and other research so Trump can’t destroy it. An open letter was signed by 2,000 scientists, doctors, and researchers at the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine calling for an end to the Trump administration’s “wholesale assault on U.S. science.” A judge issued a preliminary injunction against Trump’s attempt to end collective bargaining rights for federal workers. A congressman filed 7 articles of impeachment against Trump, including unconstitutional acts.
In other Nonviolence News, Spain hit 100% renewable power at peak working hours and Poland repealed the last of the hateful LGBTQ+ Free Zones. In Panama, an indefinite national strike has launched against pension reform, Trump’s attempts to take control of the canal, and a proposal to establish US military bases in the country. Over 6,000 people marched for Welsh independence from the United Kingdom. In Belgium, people are protesting austerity and militarization by saying: We Won’t Sacrifice Pensions For Warplanes. In Brazil, Starbucks workers are suing the company over ‘morally repugnant’, slavery-like conditions. In Tasmania, local are resisting the negative environmental impacts of toxic industrial scale fish farms. Russia sentenced a 19-year-old peace activist to three years in a penal colony for opposing the Ukraine War. Lakenheath Peace Camp in the United Kingdom opposed US-nuclear weapons in their country with two weeks of sit-ins, street theater, protests, and other actions by 250 protesters, and concluded with a topless blockade of the air base. Canadians are starting to talk about nonviolent civilian based defense as an important strategy as Trump continues to threaten to make them the 51st state.
A fresh wave of pro-Palestinian protests took place recently. Australian demonstrators are calling for a vote over Palestine, hoping to place an arms embargo on Israel. Protesters in the United States forced Israel’s Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to cancel his speech. In DC, striking demonstrators with white masks and blood red tears called for an arms embargo. A second protest in front of the Smithsonian Museum played a haunting soundtrack of mothers’ screams to render the pain of the genocide audible to US decision-makers. On the eve of the Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israeli citizens held up photos of Palestinians who have been killed in the genocide in Gaza, holding their action outside the Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem. Swedish activists with the group Wear the Peace set up a tent encampment outside the parliament building in Stockholm in solidarity with Palestinians.
A few creative actions caught my eye: community members in Chico, California, threw an Endangered Species Faire with giant puppets and hand-painted tributes to animals. The Earth Day 2025: Everyone Can Do Something campaign brought 85+ groups out to hold performance art, protests, tree plantings, kite parades, and dances for climate action and environmental protections. A march of life-sized animal puppets made from cardboard is arriving Morocco after visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, and Nigeria. Housing justice advocates held a bold, colorful march and sit-in against the California Apartment Association and even carried large prop houses with messages painted on them. Days before the Canadian election, Greenpeace threw a light projection onto the side of Niagara Falls that said: Don’t Trump Canada. (And Canada did indeed vote down the Trump-supporting Poilievre – even in his own district – putting the liberal Mark Carney into power as prime minister.)
There’s also plenty of stories to learn from in this collection of Nonviolence News, including 50501’s humble beginnings on a Reddit thread, lessons on resisting authoritarianism from Iran and Latin America, and how 15 countries have defended democracy. Take a historic look at the postal workers’ ‘illegal’ strike in 1970 and MADRE’s work in the 1980s on gender justice and human rights. There’s also this interesting piece on how federal workers have a window of opportunity to resist DOGE as Musk takes a step back.
In our Nonviolence News Research Archive – where all of this week’s 87 stories live – you’ll find some intriguing articles on Pope Francis’ peacebuilding, Gandhian nonviolence in a detention center, and being a ‘death doula’ to a dying empire. You’ll also find toolkits for countering authoritarianism and a story about how a labor organizer went undercover to ‘salt’ Starbucks and start a union.
Find all these stories and more in the Nonviolence News Research Archive>>
My favorite story? It erupted in the midst of a horrible situation. In Louisville, Kentucky, court proceedings revealed that the principal of a high school had been knowingly covering up a sports coach’s sexual abuse of a student. When the administration failed to hold him accountable, the students walked out of class and held a 2-day sit-in on the track field until the principal was removed. By refusing to go to school in an unsafe environment, they forced the adults to take mature and responsible action to address the situation. It was a powerful example of how nonviolent action gives us voice, tools, and the ability to demand change.
In a world with so much injustice, we all need the power of nonviolent action … and to hear the news of how people are using it. That’s why Nonviolence News exists.
In solidarity,
Rivera Sun
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